Uploaded February 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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The Booktube Spin 1.5

Where I kill time until April by rolling the dice and knock off another book on my great mound of unread books. Please check out Rick MacDonnell's announcement video where he explains how I put my fate in the hands of THE WHEEL to decide which of a self-selected list of twenty books I'm going to read next. But until then THE DICE will decide! (At least for February.)

Rick MacDonnell's announcement video for the Booktube Spin:
youtu.be/kGujr-dBMVw​

My (modified) list of 20 books for completists:

1. Stoner - John Williams
2. The Long Ships - Frans G. Bengtsson
3. The Pagan Rabbi - Cynthia Ozik
4. Plainsong - Kent Haruf
5. Parrot and Olivier in America - Peter Carey
6. A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon - Anthony Marra
7. Tirza - Arnon Grunberg
8. The Rotter's Club - Jonathan Coe
9. The Loser - Thomas Bernhard
10. The Island of Doctor Death & Other Stories & Other Stories - Gene Wolfe
11. HMS Surprise - Patrick O'Brian
12. A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews
13. The Uller Uprising - H. Beam Piper
14. Cassandra - Christa Wolfe
15. The Master of Ballantrae - Robert Louis Stevenson
16. The Phantom Rickshaw - Rudyard Kipling
17. The Armies of the Night - Norman Mailer
18. Inferno - Eileen Myles
19. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
20. Arturo's Island - Elsa Morante

#marchingmammoths2021 is a fun, sometimes quite aspirational event for a lot of us, to read an 800+ page long novel in the month of March. But Lukas, Jason and Al are welcoming to us slow readers too! The point is to dive deep into a gloriously long novel with its own rewards and joys (and trials), maybe I'll finish in March, maybe (probably??) not. Check out their announcement videos:

Lukas @A Cruel Reader's Thesis video:
youtu.be/zYrxR52AUuQ

Jason @Old Blue's Chapter and Verse 's video: youtu.be/g4nq_mOwIj0​

Alex @bigalbooks 's video: youtu.be/1pfKTIfuZBY

(Video #382)